


The Key

by BekahRose



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-22
Updated: 2011-01-22
Packaged: 2017-10-14 23:06:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/154464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BekahRose/pseuds/BekahRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Tosh's brilliance with technology that allows for the whole world to 'tap' into the Archangel Network. She is the key to making the Doctor's plan a success.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Key

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Wynkat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wynkat/gifts).



> Written for Wynkat during the tw_femficfest. The initial Prompt was "Tosh - AU where she makes a significant contribution to the Doctor's plan in "Last of the Time Lords". Ideally she gets to remember what happened as well."

Tosh sat in front of the workstation fiddling with the knick-knacks she found. It was hard to believe they hadn’t lasted longer than eight months without their numbers dwindling down to just the three of them, well… four if you included Martha, but she wouldn’t be staying much longer, she never did, not even when she first arrived…

 _The whir of the lift coming to life drew their attention and had the four remaining Torchwood operatives and DI Swanson reaching for their guns and Rhys and Andy Davidson hefting their cricket bats as they watched the block of concrete slowly descend._

 _“Tosh,” Owen’s voice was little more than an exhalation of air, “I thought you disabled the bloody lift?”_

 _“She did,” Ianto spoke up as Tosh set about checking her computer. “Only one person can activate that thing topside.” He said as he lowered his gun a fraction. “Jack?”_

 _“Uh, no.” A feminine voice called to them. “I’m looking for Toshiko Sato?”_

 _Ianto’s gun snapped back up as the lift came to a grinding halt._

 _“Hold it right there.” Owen said with his gun trained firmly on the young woman before she could step off the concrete slab. “Gwen, Kathy, if you’d be so kind.” He motioned towards the young woman and they moved to search her for weapons as Rhys, Andy and Ianto formed a loose circle around Tosh. “Tosh, you know this bird?”_

 _She shook her head._

 _“She’s clean, except for this.” Gwen held up a very familiar piece of leather, nodding when Ianto and Tosh both gasped._

 _“My name is Martha Jones, Jack sent me!” The young woman cried out, “He told me if any of this was going to work I needed to find Toshiko Sato and Torchwood Three!”_

That had been a month into Saxon’s reign of terror. Tosh had managed to fix the manipulator in the first two weeks of Martha’s visit, allowing the young woman to teleport between the Hub and the world outside it.

“How’s it coming?” A soft voice spoke up from behind her.

“It’s not.” She said, turning to give Andy a small smile. “Had to give it a rest, eyes were starting to go funny. Thanks.” Her smile brightened a little as she took the cup he held out to her.

“Don’t mention it. It’s not Ianto’s, but I’m sure it’ll do in a pinch.” He looked around the Hub and could hear Owen and Martha arguing down in the autopsy bay before pulling up a chair and sitting beside Tosh. “If you tell me what we’re supposed to be looking for, I can keep an eye out while you have a rest?”

Tosh hummed softly and turned back to the screen as she started to explain to the former constable what they were looking for...

 _“It is how he managed to worm his way into our lives without us ever realising it,” Martha said patiently, looking around the conference table. “I mean, really… just who is Harold Saxon? Why did we vote for him?”_

 _“And you want us to do what exactly?” Owen asked, eyeing the young woman._

 _“Not us, me.” Tosh said, looking Martha directly in the eye. “You need me to find a weak spot in this Archangel Network; otherwise your plan… the Doctor’s plan, won’t work.” She continued when Martha nodded, “What happens if it doesn’t work, what’s plan B?”_

~*~

A yell shattered the quiet of the Hub and Owen came running, gun drawn and his whole body on full alert, ready to kill whatever it was.

Tosh froze mid-celebratory dance as Owen arrived. “Owen?”

The medic scowled and tucked his gun away when he realised there was no threat. “For fuck’s sake, Tosh,” he said, shaking his head. “I thought we were under attack.”

“Sorry,” Tosh said softly, looking suitably chastised. She truly hadn’t meant to scare him. It was just the two of them now and she often forgot just how jumpy it had made the doctor.

“Yeah, well…” Owen frowned, folding his arms over his chest. “What’s gotten your knickers in a knot?”

Tosh smiled and threw her arms around Owen, holding him tight. “I did it!” She said, pulling back and grinning at him. The fact that he’d told her off a moment ago now forgotten, with the fact that she could share her news with someone. “I mean, I know it’s taken me almost eleven months to break it open, and then there was the Bubble, and helping fix the manipulator every time it burned out, and then with Kathy and Gwen, Ianto and Rhys and then Andy…” She trailed off and gave Owen a small, sad smile. “But I’ve done it.” She said, pointing to the computer. “In two days, The Plan is going to go into action and the Archangel Network will be Saxon’s undoing!” She bounced and hugged Owen again. “The Doctor’s already integrated, and that was the key really,” she said, slipping into her seat and adjusting her glasses.

“That was the key. I had to wait for him. His psychic signature was the key to me having access to the network, and now that I do, in two days, when time’s up, I’m going to throw open the network and with everyone thinking about the Doctor, with any luck, whatever Saxon’s done, will be undone.”

Owen gave Tosh a small smile, reaching out to squeeze her shoulder. It had been a long and insane twelve months and they’d both lost so much and he knew that as time had passed and their number dwindled, she’d begun to hope that, whatever it was she was helping Martha to do, by some miracle, would return their friends and he hadn’t wanted to dissuade her; he was pessimistic enough for the both of them. “Can’t we throw it open now?” He asked, impatient for all the hiding and fear to end.

Tosh shook her head, “If we do it now, he’ll know we’re up to something, and he’ll send those things again to try and stop us. In two days, Martha will provide the distraction we need and then we can throw it open to the rest of the world.” She leant back in her chair, watching the monitor and the window that held all the information on the Archangel Satellite Network.

Owen nodded before dragging her chair away from the computer. “You’ve done your job, now go and get some rest. Doctor’s orders,” he said. “You look like shit.” He pulled his own chair over and sat down to watch the monitors while Tosh got some much deserved rest.

~*~

The breach had occurred in the early hours of the morning; she and Owen had been sitting together on the sofa, trying not to think of what the day would bring. At the first alarm, Owen had taken up position by the cog door and she’d moved to her workstation in the hopes of activating the time lock. The time lock had worked, but now she hated herself for it. Trapped in her latest preventative measure, she had watched as Owen – standing just beyond the time lock’s perimeter – had been ripped apart by the UNIT squad’s bullets. Looking at the clock, Tosh sighed and brushed her hair back off her face. She’d finished crying hours ago, just before the soldiers had given up and left her there with Owen’s body just out of reach. It was almost time, and she needed to be focused. She needed to be thinking of the Doctor and not Owen or Andy or Ianto or Rhys or Gwen or Kathy… or Jack.

She turned away from Owen, her heart aching as she shut her eyes and began mumbling the word ‘Doctor’ over and over again as she set about throwing open Saxon’s Archangel Network to the rest of the world. Martha had never said what would happen if the world managed to pull this off, but she had hoped – they had all hoped – that it would stop Saxon, take away his power… undo all that had been done. But that had been before Kathy and Gwen had died trying to save a little girl from the Toclafane. It was after their deaths that Tosh began to hope that the completion of this mission that saving the Doctor and Martha and Jack, would see the safe return of her friends and family.

Tosh opened her eyes in time to see the counter on her computer flash **00:00:00** and her mumbled litany became a single shout of ‘Doctor!’ before she turned and spared a glance at Owen’s lifeless body. As she watched, she felt something shift within the Hub and with a blink, Owen’s body had disappeared. The blood that had been pooling and congealing on the floor – just out of reach of the time lock – vanished and Tosh felt her stomach flip as the shadow of a ghost of _something_ caught the corner of her eye. Following the shadow’s movement, Tosh turned, a strangled sob escaping her throat as she came face-to-chest with a deep red button down and grey and red striped tie.

“Tosh,” Ianto said softly, “Is everything okay?” When she threw her arms around his chest and squeezed tightly by way of answer, Ianto looked towards the autopsy bay where he could hear Owen muttering to himself about idiot Presidents who got themselves assassinated.

Pulling back when she felt the chest under her cheek expand and the arms around her tighten slightly, she smiled and brushed her hair back. “I’m fine, Ianto. It’s just… it’s been a long day. Feels like I’ve been sitting in front of that computer for a year.” She stepped back and straightened her shoulders. “I’ll be okay, just need a little rest is…” she was cut off as the rift alert sounded and Gwen and Owen both came bounding from their respective hiding places. Her heart jumped to her throat to see them again, whole and unharmed.

“What have we got?” Gwen asked, already slipping into her jacket.

Tosh moved back to the computers, minimizing the timer and the information on the Archangel Network – she’d set about dismantling it later – and pulled up the information Gwen was after. “Looks like a single, bipedal humanoid came through the rift. The spike’s too large for a piece of junk but too small for some of the other life forms that come through, just west of Bute Park.”

“Right then, Ianto bring the SUV around, Tosh, grab whatever you need to track that thing from the SUV and Owen - ” Gwen was cut off as the medic arrived waving a tranquilizer gun and a smaller version of the first aid kit they kept in the SUV for the bigger rift arrivals. “Right then,” Gwen continued, “Let’s get going.”

~*~

Finding him hadn’t been too difficult; she still had the tech on her PDA that allowed her to track the vortex manipulator… and the research for the tech she’d used to fix the damn thing for Martha all those months ago… in the months to come – Tosh sighed and shook her head slightly, just thinking about the mechanics involved in the time-rewind made her head hurt – was still neatly compartmentalised in her head. Approaching the darkened corner of the hotel bar, Tosh thought that maybe she was the only one; that the time lock for all that it had protected her, it had protected her from the reversal.

“You should be resting,” Jack said, smiling up at Tosh before motioning for her to join him.

“I’m not really tired.” She lied, slipping into the seat opposite him. “I… I needed to talk to someone.”

“Owen getting shot wasn’t your fault, Tosh.” Jack took a sip of water before looking at her steadily. “If anything, it’s mine. I should have handled Hart by myself instead of letting you all get involved.”

Tosh shook her head, “That’s not quite what I wanted to talk to you about.” Off his look, she continued. “While you were… away… something happened.”

Jack chuckled, “Don’t tell me, Gwen found Owen and Ianto dancing in the middle of the Plass, high as kites?” He shifted in his seat as Tosh continued to stare into her glass of wine, uncomfortable with where he thought this might be going. Taking another sip of his water, he nudged her foot under the table. “C’mon, you’ve helped save the day, lighten up a little.”

Tosh lifted her gaze to Jack and she suddenly felt less alone. There was something in his eyes that told her he knew; perhaps not about her, but about what had happened, about what she had helped stop. Taking another sip of wine to steel her nerves, she began.

“I remember, Jack.” She couldn’t stop herself from looking down at the table, and missed the flash of terror in his eyes. “I remember watching as the President of the United States was assassinated, I watched you get shot and come back on national television. I know who Martha Jones is, I know who Harold Saxon is and I can’t say I’m devastated by his death.” She looked up then and reached out to grab his hand, “I watched DI Swanson and Gwen get torn apart by something called the Toclafane. And at dawn this morning, I watched UNIT soldiers shoot Owen to death while I looked on, safe in my little bubble, just outside of time.”

“Tosh,” Jack began to speak, his grip on her hand tightening. She wasn’t supposed to remember this; the Doctor had promised that it was only those in the eye of the storm.

“I think I scared Ianto when I saw him next. I’m guessing with the Doctor’s plan working, he was able to set things right… I met him once, just after Owen came to work for you. He was completely hung over and I had to go up to London instead, some alien space pig or something.” She looked up at Jack. “Owen, Gwen, Ianto… they don’t remember anything, do they?”

Jack’s throat felt tight and his tongue felt as though he was drinking sawdust rather than water. He shook his head and drained his glass, before speaking. “No. By rights, you shouldn’t remember either. The only people who should remember are those that were in what the Doctor called the eye of the time storm.”

Tosh nodded. “Right, so… the time lock… if I hadn’t been in the time lock, I wouldn’t remember.”

Jack nodded, “And if you hadn’t been in the time lock, you’d probably have never been able to throw open the network for the world to bring down Saxon.” He brought her hand up and pressed his lips to it in a quick kiss. “I’m sorry that you remember, Tosh.” He said, giving her a sad smile as he let her hand go. “But, you were the key to making the Doctor’s plan work. I’m sorry that you had to go through all of that alone, that I wasn’t there to save Gwen or Owen or anyone else, but without you, we’d all still be under Saxon’s thumb.”

Draining the last of her wine, Tosh nodded. “It’s okay. I understand and I’m not angry or upset, I… I’m not sure what I’m meant to do with all of it; the memories, the feelings… Christ, Jack. My head feels like it’s going to explode!”

“We could try retcon, if it’s what you want?”

Tosh stood up from the table and shook her head. “No. I just needed to tell you, let you know that I’m here if you ever need to talk and that, if I ever need to talk, I’ll come and find you.” She grinned at Jack, “It’ll be our own, private little club. Survivors of the End of the World; you can be Vice-President.” She leant down and brushed her lips against his hair before walking away.

“Toshiko!” Jack called out before she had gotten too far. “It will get better. We’ll _make_ it better.”

Tosh nodded, “Night, Jack.” She called over her shoulder, making her way back to her room. She had helped save the world; she deserved an entire night’s sleep.


End file.
